Painted Faces for Halloween

Create glorious painted faces this year with your kids. Much more fun than the usual masks!

By FamilyTime

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Ghoulies and ghosts and witches, oh no! Kid’s love to have their face painted--and what better time to do so than Halloween!

Painted faces are more fun and less threatening than plastic masks. They also are safer, since plastic masks can distort peripheral vision.

Best of all, face painting fosters imagination.

Painting FacesBefore you begin, make sure your hands are clean and dry and the youngster’s face is clean and dry, too.

Using your fingertips, spread the base color over larger areas: the cheeks, brow, and chin. To make paint lines, designs, dots, eyebrows , and lips, rely on a small paintbrush or makeup brush.

The brush should be clean and dry before you start.

Orange-tinted paint is perfect for tigers, scarecrows, and jack-o-lanterns. Before using it, apply a thin line of white paint around the eyes, followed by a thicker line of black paint.

Continue with the black paint to make tiger stripes and jack-o-lantern eyes and mouths. Spread orange paint over the rest of the face. Paint vertical black lines on cheeks for a pumpkin, and black eyebrows and lashes for a scarecrow.

Smooth white face paint over the child’s entire face as a base of a vampire, clown, or ghost. Use your imagination and paint wild colors or ghoulish blood on top of the white base.

Always use non-toxic face paint. You can buy it in toy, craft, party, and costume shops. You can also make your own!

Homemade Face PaintThe kids can help you make this face paint. It doesn’t keep very long, but because it’s so easy to whip up, make it a few days before Halloween and practice. Make more on the big day.

Once your kids learn this formula, they may want to make face paint whenever they are in the mood for play acting or as a good way to have fun on rainy days.

Make several batches of face paint and tint each a different color. For ease, make them in small paper cups – a different color in each cup.